A Day to Be Feared

Training Bodybuilding
1

Just wrapped up a six week maintenance phase that followed 5 months of cutting and did my measurements.

Six weeks of clean, dialed-in nutrition and consistent workouts. Anxiously, I pulled out my Myo-Tape to measure my gains.

The tape hadn’t moved anywhere, except half an inch on the chest.

Crap.

Frantically, I’m checking nutrition logs, workout logs, thinking ‘what happened? where’d I go wrong?’

The logs don’t lie. My lifts had been fairly even, with few increases over the six weeks.

It was time to change. You gotta hurt to grow.

Yesterday was leg day. A leg day with a redesigned routine. A leg day where I increased all my lifts 15-20%, and told myself I wasn’t leaving till I finished every last squat, every last lunge, every last deadlift.

Ninety minutes later, I stumbled out of my weight room with a new understanding of pain, and what it means to overcome it: of fear of going down and not getting back up, but finding a way.

Today, I was so sore, I woke up barely walking. It took me 30 minutes to work up the courage to get on the treadmill for my warmup. I had to go up about a hundred stairs this afternoon, and I didn’t think I was going to make it all the way.

Leg Day, for me at least, is now, a day to be feared.

To all true T-Men on Leg Day:

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

2

Amen to that!
A few weeks ago I started to do 20RM squats on one of my lower body training days. I would be lying if I said that I am not a bit scared the few moments before I get under the bar and start grinding out the reps.

3

Yea man, on CT’s pendulum BB he has you doing 20 rep squats and then 20 rep deadlift. Man, I do so much praying the last few reps of deadlifts that I reckon that lifting that weight is good for the soul!

BMF

4

We all go through periods where we thought we were doing everything right only to find out something was missing. Check your logs…
protein?
carbs?
EFA’s?
multi?
post workout (Surge)?
workouts (this is a tuff one, no one best routine for everyone)

5

You did the right thing. When changes slow or stop all together then CHANGE, anything, everything, something, just change.

A good wakeup call.

6

I love reading about other t-maggers who are this dedicated to making progress. I’d love to hear why you lift. T-Banker, why do you put yourself through this day after day? The cutting, the bulking, etc. People who do 20rm squats are just not normal people; they’ve got to be one of the most grueling exercises to put yourself through. I just need to read some motivation from some other t-maggers right now…

7

quattro dynamo has me doing 2 sets of 25 with a 27 rm load, and let me say that on about rep 18, the legs start to say “you bastard!” but it’s been worth it!

8

Hey T-banker and others who posted on this thread talking about stepping up there leg days, thanks a ton. I needed something insparational. I hadn’t gone in and destroyed my legs in at least 3-4 weeks because of the full body routine I had been on.
So today I went in and destroyed my legs with the 20rep squats you guys were talking about and then some realy high rep leg curls and extensions till after I could barely move my legs.
Thanks again for reminding me how much I love punishing my legs.
GET BIG.
DA

9

Maybe I?m wrong here, but didn?t you just say you were on a MAINTENANCE phase? So why are you so upset with no body comp changes? After 5 months of cutting (awesome job by the way), I would also do 6 weeks of maintenance, but the goal of that should be to slowly increase your calories back to normal while not adding any fat due to the slowed metabolism. Once you are at your calorie set-point for maintenance, you then go on to the next bulking cycle and eat above maintenance designed to add quality muscle. This would be the way that I would do it. And I would never expect significant muscle gains while eating only at maintenance. Maybe that?s just me though.

10

randman -

I totally agree. ‘Normal’ people don’t do the stuff we do.

I’ve got lots a reasons ‘why’ I do it. All of us do. For me, this time of year, some of its the no shirt thing. I like walking around the local water/theme park without a shirt and not being embarrassed.

Frankly, (not to sound cocky or anything cause I’m not exactly an advanced lifter) I enjoy looking around, and knowing I look better than 9 out of 10 guys walking around with their guts hanging out and no muscle tone (it wasn’t that long ago I was one of 'em). I’m more self confident because of it and I like that.

Its also an area of my life where I feel like I can accomplish things. I can set a goal for a certain weight or 1RM or bodyfat percentage. I do the things I gotta do to get there, hit the goal, and really feel like I did something: its like my self image grows cause I reached high, and busted my tail, and actually did ‘it’!

I enjoy the recognition I get for it. Friends or coworkers see me in a tank top, and they see the changes and comment about it. This sounds bad, but I kinda enjoy the look of envy in someone’s eye when they look at me and do the inward mental comparison and know they fall short. I know it doesn’t sound very noble, and may be a little petty, but hey, I don’t have much else in life that others envy…

Sure, there’s lots of other reasons. I’m a ton healthier than I ever used to be. Exercise is a great stress reliever. I’ve got a great sense of comraderie and competition with my brother and some other friends who lift.

Being a T-Man takes a lot more than strong muscles. It takes strength of character to get there. It takes a toughness, a resilience that most don’t have. Hitting the iron and eating right are just the behaviors that showcase those character attributes not only to your neighbor, but also to the guy in the mirror. I like that.

11

Knuckler-

You caught me man. Guilty as charged. I knew someone would catch that word - ‘maintenance.’

You are absolutely right. After 5 months of cutting, I wanted to do six weeks of maintenance to reset the old metabolism, slowly ratcheting up the calories without a lot of bodyfat gain.

Intellectually, I knew all I wanted to do was ‘maintain’. Eat more and not get fat - that was the plan.

I executed well, nutritionally. But 5 months of cutting had cost me. I had lost over twelve inches on my waist (yeah!), but also had lost six inches on my chest (mostly fat) and over an inch on my arms (sob).

So, even though I was just hoping to step up the calories with minimal fat gain, I had these somewhat understandable but irrational dreams that since I was lifting consistently and no longer hungry all the time, that I might actually gain some significant muscle. Especially since I did gain about three pounds during the six week period.

So, yes, I know intellectually, I should be pleased since this was the expected result, but damn, I mean like six days a week in the gym without fail had my hopes up for more…

12

I don’t know why I do it, for some reason I just love it. Getting bigger and stronger is part of it but I can’t explain the other part. Me and my lifting partner did quattro dynamo and on the 2 sets of 25 rep squats I almost threw up on both sets and my lifting partner did.

13

Banker-

Your exactly right. ‘Normal’ people won’t do what we do.

‘Normal’ won’t squat 'til they are ready to puke and then limp out to the car.

This defines T-Men.

14

T-Banker,

Most excellent response. Thanks, I needed that.